It’s new, it’s now!, it’s… odd. THE BEATLES have returned to the charts with what is being touted as their last single and the press is all over it. The YouTube video brigade has weighed in heavily, too, but there’s not much opinion about the music – it’s all “the cover is horrible,” “this one’s on clear-with-blue-streaks vinyl,” “the packaging on the CD single’s cheap and thin,” etc. “Now and Then” is certainly a pretty good song but as can be the case so often these days, the marketing of the single and the timing of its release has taken the spotlight. (I’ve already mentioned some of it here before talking about the song itself!) Well, Fab Four Fans, I’ll give you my opinion and it’s worth every cent you paid for it.
“Now and Then” is a sweet, melancholy song. It started out as a late ’70s cassette recording of just John Lennon singing at the piano. Yoko sat on it (literally, I don’t know) for decades and in the mid ’90s Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr attempted to do something with it the way they had with similar Lennon home recordings (“Real Love” and “Free As a Bird,” which were tarted up by the remaining Beatles and released as singles and on the first two Anthology collections). They shelved it at the time and 25 years later took another crack at it (without George, since he died in 2002). AND WHAT WE HAVE NOW, THEN, is a nice tune augmented by every trick in the Beatles’ book. Paul and Ringo (okay, it’s mostly Paul) have heaped so much on top of John’s humble recording that it practically buckles under the weight. 
(Hey Paul, you mean you didn’t add any theremin? What’s wrong with you?!) Seriously. Somewhere under multiple guitars, orchestra and more is a nice little song trying to get some air. I also find that what has been added sounds off-time from John – like everything else is just… off… center. (Houston, we have a latency problem.) And finally, Paul and Ringo’s backing vocals add a very weird flavor: you’ve got these two old men, over 80 years old, singing along with 37 year old Lennon and it’s kind of eerie. When Paul, George and Ringo added vocals to those mid ’90s Anthology centerpieces, their voices hadn’t changed so notably so it sounded like everything could have been recorded around the same time. Now there’s a noticeable difference. (Your mileage may vary…)
“Now and Then” is still a beautiful song, and it has brought a wee lil’ tear to each of my eyes nearly every time I’ve played it (I bought the clear vinyl, for those of you keeping score at home). Who knows where it will land in The Beatles canon? It could end up sitting right next to their greatest, or it could end up at the kids’ table. But it’s The Beatles! Yeah. Yeah? Yeah! – Marsh Gooch
3/5 (Apple/Parlophone Records 0602448145864/45-R 4814586, 2023)
Phase 2 in which Doris gets her oats…* 
The bulk of the rest of the cuts are in-studio early takes, trial mixes and edits of the songs you’d expect, including an instrumental version of “Because,” a strings-only track for “Something,” and a strings ’n’ brass one for “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight.” It’s great to finally hear alternate takes of “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s so heavy)” complete with Billy Preston’s amazing organ that was all-but-obliterated by the white noise that builds up in the last half of the original side one closer. Interesting, too, is a trial edit and mix of “The Long One,” i.e., the side two medley that makes up the last third of the album. Here you hear “Her Majesty” in its original placement, smack dab in the middle of “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.” It was wise of them to snip it out of there and move it elsewhere on the LP, as its stark acoustic guitar and voice completely destroys the momentum building up to “The End.” (And that’s not to mention how “ironic” it is to have “The End” at, ummmm, the end of the record – if only to be followed by the originally unlisted little ditty that eventually closed the album out.)
It’s kind of wonderful, this worldwide wankfest over a 50 year old rock ’n’ roll album. All kinds of people, everywhere, getting all hot ’n’ bothered over THE BEATLES’ Abbey Road, the last album they recorded together but the penultimate release during their actual time together as The Fab Four. The cynical among us probably consider it another greedy cash grab, the romantic might think it’s a real sweet thing, and I’ve heard there are even those among us who don’t care! Whatever, I’m devoting some column inches to it (as they would’ve said in ’69), so I must care.
In terms of formats, well of course there are more than you can shake a stick at. You can get Abbey Road on single LP, double LP, picture disc LP, single CD (which is what I’m basing this post on), double CD, or the 3 LP and 3 CD/1 Bluray box sets (coming in the mail later this week!). As I’ve said in the past, what’s gonna work for you is largely a function of how big a fan you are. Take the guy on the left in the photo at left: he’s probably not going to get any of these, but was nice enough to play John Lennon to my McCartney (I couldn’t be bothered to take my shoes off, though) when we entered a Seattle area record store yesterday to pay our respects. But (his sister) Shirley there must be an edition that will work for you, so I suggest you get on down to Abbey Road at your earliest convenience and see what son Giles has done to dad George’s recording of The Beatles’s first or second greatest moment. — Marsh Gooch
[This review was first published 6/8/2010 on Skratchdisc]
Here’s a memo to the bigwigs at EMI: Next year’s Record Store Day is on April 15, 2011 (so I’m told). Start preparing now.
Today being the 50th Anniversary of its release, here’s my take on THE BEATLES’ quintessential record.
Giles Martin’s new stereo mix relies less on gimmicky over-separation and goes for a more evenhanded approach, and it largely succeeds. (Stereo was new to the pop audience of the mid ’60s so exaggerated separation was the order of the day – sort of like over-enunciating in order to be understood.) Though some changes on the new stereo mix are too subtle for the typical listener to notice, it’s just as enjoyable. I like the more pronounced bass and drums, the clarity of some of the guitar and piano parts, and of course, the lovely sound of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s vocal harmonies. I could go into detail (I took notes during my first playback), but really, you can find that online in many places. Go ahead if you want to, or just go pick up a copy and hear for yourself.
Or Battle of The Beatles Heavyweights! Right about now in 1975, former Beatle JOHN LENNON released an album of Rock ’N’ Roll oldies – and it was to be his last for over five years. At the time the critics weren’t exactly singing the praises of it or their hero’s seeming lack of new songs. In fact, they were fairly forthright about it. It doesn’t really matter anymore, though, as today Rock ’N’ Roll stands as the man’s unique tribute to the music that inspired him, eventually to form his own band and then change the face of popular music forever.
Lennon and McCartney, though once united in rhyme in The Beatles, chose different songs for their respective tributes. They both relied heavily on the big names of ’50s rock: Fats Domino (“Ain’t That a Shame” was the only song covered by both, with McCartney also doing Fats’ “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” and “I’m in Love Again”), Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. The albums were recorded over ten years apart, with different bands and under different circumstances (by ’87 Lennon had been dead for seven years, which must have weighed heavily on McCartney’s mind as he went about making his record). So pitting the two records against each other isn’t really a fair fight. But since I’m the referee in this ring, I’ve chosen to go for it anyway and render my decision. No punching below the belt, no name calling, gentlemen, let’s have a fair fight and may the best man win!
Lennon’s LP, Rock ’N’ Roll, is a very thick-sounding record. Replete with not only guitar and keyboards but a horn section, its production – by Lennon and “Wall Of Sound” originator Phil Spector – is multi-layered and at times suffers from too-much-happening-all-at-once. Yet the arrangements are quite spectacular, sometimes unique (the slow reggaefied rhythm of “You Can’t Catch Me,” for instance), and delivered with commitment. When John sings “Stand by Me” you can feel the song’s import on his life. The album’s been reissued many times. I highly recommend the 2010 vinyl, remastered from 24/96 digital files (purportedly taken directly from the analog master) but very detailed and with no noticable digital ick. For a different take on the material, find the 2005 CD – it was remixed at the time and de-clutters some of the arrangements to give you a different, maybe even better idea of just what was going on at Record Plant East Studios (“everybody here says ‘hi’”) all those years ago.
Fast forward twenty years to 2016 and RON HOWARD’s Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years. Here we get a 105 minute documentary that covers only three to four years of the band’s history and uncovers hardly anything new or revelatory. (There’s both a standard one disc version and a “Special Edition,” both on Blu-ray or DVD, with an extra disc of bonus material.) The fact that the project started out as a highly publicized idea to examine the band as a live act is interesting. Either Howard and his pals were unable to come up with a good story (hard to believe, given: The Beatles!), even enlisting the public to share their stories and/or audio or video, or for some other reason they changed horses midstream and scrubbed the original plot. Well, you may have guessed that I think they botched it up, big time.
Released to coincide with the premiere of Ron Howard’s documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, this reboot of the band’s sole, totally official live record is a mixed bag. Yes, I wanted to love this. I mean, I’m glad they’ve finally revisited The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, the 1977 record and document of the Fab Four in concert circa 1964-1965, but they did a real half-assed job of it. I understand the idea: reissue the album to coincide with the documentary, which is ostensibly about THE BEATLES as a live act, but since that original concept turned into a much wider vision, the reissued Hollywood Bowl album feels like a real after thought.
Second, calling it “an entirely new release” is a lie. The new version contains the word ”live” in the title, which is new, but the album has the same original 13 tracks in the same order, with four more for a bonus. The sound, remixed by George Martin’s son Giles, is pretty good and punchy, but even today there’s not a lot they could do to rescue the sound quality. (The concerts were recorded on three-track tape, giving the engineers little to work with in terms of a mix.) George Martin’s 1977 version sounded pretty good, actually, and his son’s 2016 mix isn’t all that different. So, again, this reissue feels forced.
NuDisc 